It is a great idea to get your family together and out on a camping holiday. It will enrich your relations and make everyone happy, at least happy to go back home. The place you pick for your camping holiday is the main ingredient of the atmosphere, but which ingredients should you have for lunch when on your self catering holiday?

Of course, you can always bring along some sandwiches and packed meals, but that is just not in the spirit of camping. For a family holiday to be in the true spirit of camping, it should involve cooking lunch and baking sausages together over a camp fire, sleeping in a tent or in a sleeping bag, and hiking around difficult steep mountain tracks. But mountain hiking is a demanding task, so let us get back to preparing lunch first.

You should know which groceries can last for how long when out of the fridge. For instance, if you plan not to go acquiring more food once you set up camp, or the nearest store is too far away should you have chosen a particularly beautiful site far into the untouched nature, you should always bring along more than enough bread and crackers, as backup food, should something happen to the food you plan to prepare on site. Also, always have more than enough water for the entire period you plan to be camping. Meat products can sometimes become unusable when out of the fridge for more than a few days, even when they are held in a portable camping fridge, so you should prepare it as quick as you can when you arrive on site. Baked sausages will last much longer than raw ones. And barbecued stakes will last more than the day they are good for not barbecued. Make a central event out of preparing the food, organising finding firewood and securing the fireplace. It will be the central event whether you want it or not, so you’d better make sure it goes well by bringing along some firewood in case that there aren’t any dry ones on site. Also some vegetables and cooking oil would be nice to make the accompanying salad. And plenty of fruit to eat between meals and while exploring the surroundings.

Besides food, clothes are important, as it gets wet after intense hiking. You should have at least two more sets of clothes, so as to be able to dry one as you wear the other, and the third awaits washing. Being next to a clean river is what would enable you to wash the clothes without the need for any facilities, in the traditional way of using only the water and your hands. A little effort wont harm you, it will only add to the intense feelings of being on a self catering holiday.